b.c. early career teachers’ association...i am so proud to be a part of this group and hope to...

@BCECTA

B.C. Early Career Teachers’ Association

sharing knowledgeLearning from experience, advice for new teachers p.22

a d v i c e

where to lookCollaborate and share p.20

r e s o u r c e s

technologyElementary reading. There’s an app for that! p.21

r e v i e w s

Classroom managementTips for success for TTOCs and new teachers.PAGE 12

ready to use Examples p.18

a c t i v i t i e s

First year in the trenchesA new teacher tells the tales of her experiences.PAGE 18

thinking of Teaching abroad?Place creative strapline describing article content inside of the magazine. PAGE 7

32

B C E C TA N E W S M A G | V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2 B C E C TA N E W S M A G | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5

Are you on Twitter??

We are, and we’d love to hear from you!

Twitter is an awesome way to build your personal learn-ing network, exchange ideas and share resources.

Follow us: @BCECTA

and get in on the conversa-tion using the #hashtag# #BCECTA

4 meet the executiveIntroducing the inaugural BCECTA Executive Committee for the 2015-2016 school year.

11 GoalsA non-exhaustive list of some the goals the BCECTA hopes to accomplish as the BCTF’s newest PSA dedicated to TTOCs and those just beginning their careers.

12 Classroom management & tips for success

Amanda Long Anderson talks about classroom management and shares some tips and tricks she’s learned over the years.

14 TTOC ToolboxColin Bailey shares an activity that he’s often used TTOCing in new classrooms.

16 last second games for kidsA great list of easy, no-prep activities to add to your teaching tool kit thanks to a contribution from blogger Rachel Davis.

18 first year in the trenches

Laura Seer shares her experiences as a first-year teacher.

20 a tale of two teachersTwo Victoria teachers got together and started a blog! They talk about their experinces (the good and the bad) and have an awesome “Resources” page for you to check out.

21 App ReviewJen McDonald reviews the app Starfall: Learn to Read.

22 advice from an experienced teacherLois Kuhen, a recently retired teacher, shares advice from her teaching career.

24 Classroom NewsletterKendra Jesske shares an example of a newsletter template she’s used in elementary classrooms.

26 tales from seoulNicole Jarvis writes about her recent experience teaching English in a little town outside of Seoul.

30 project of heartJen McDonald presents the new BCTF resource.

32 newsletter guidelinesPlease consider submitting an article for publication in future editions. You could win prizes!

34 teachbc resourceA genius BCTF initiave which allows teachers to upload, share and download other teacher-made resources. Free virtual collaboration at its finest!

@ B C E C TA

C O N T E N T S BCECTA NEWSMAG

54


It is my pleasure to introduce to you the first Executive Committe of the BCTF’s

newest Provincial Specialist Association: The British Columbia Early Career Teachers’

Association (BCECTA) as determined at the inaugural Annual General Meeting

which was held on Wednesday, August 26th 2015 in Kamloops, BC.

The BCECTA Exec Committee is made up of 11 dedicated BCTF members who

believe in the importance of supporting teachers new to the profession, or those

working as TTOCs, or in short-term contracts, or in their newly awarded continut-

ing contract.

President: Amanda Long-Anderson Vice-President: Nicole Jarvis

Secretary: Laura Seer Treasurer: Amanda Roberts

Conference Chair: Katherine O’Connor Webmaster: Kendra Jesske

Members-at-Large: Editor: Kelly MacLean

Alexandra Adhikary

Colin Bailey

Aimee Blow

Jennifer McDonald

I am entering my tenth year teaching in Coquitlam. When I started as a TTOC we did not post temporary

contracts in Coquitlam and I found it extremely difficult to obtain an interview for a temporary contract. Since I needed temporary contract time in order to convert to a continuing contract I was frustrated and turned to my local union, after being invited by a friend, to seek answers.

I quickly became involved in the TTOC Committee as it provided me a way to get answers to questions I had and to meet other TTOCs and know I wasn’t alone. Without a school or staff to call my own, it was so great to have the

TTOC Committee to talk to and turn to. As time went on I was very involved with the local union [CTA] and eventually the provincial union [BCTF].

I have taught middle school, highschool, elementary school, English, FSL, home ec, learning assistance, student services, you name it, and the one thing I found often missing was a designated mentor. Sure, there were amazing colleagues who would lend me a resource binder or pop in to see how I was doing, but it wasn’t until our district set up a formal mentoring program that I realized how important that connection was. I became a district mentor for TTOC and wondered why there wasn’t a PSA for new teachers and TTOCs to connect with mentors, find specific professional development and support for their unique needs. Over the course of two years I met with like-minded teachers across the province and we created the new PSA BCECTA.

I am so proud to be a part of this group and hope to continue to help new teachers and TTOCs during the early years of teaching because I know how uncertain they can be. I hope that this PSA will benefit new teachers and continue to provide support and advocate for teachers at the start of their career.

Thank you to everyone

who put their name forward!

M E E T T H E E X E C U T I V E FACES OF THE BCECTA

A M A N D A L O N G

P R E S I D E N T

76


Nicole is a secondary French & English Teacher currently working on-call in both Delta & Surrey. She joined her Delta Teachers’

Association Executive Committee out of curiosity about the union in 2012, loved the new friends she met, and joined the Surrey Teachers’ Association TTOC committee soon after, in order to support other new Teachers. She has felt empowered to ask questions, debate, consider, and participate in the DTA, STA, and BCTF over the past four years in various capacities.

Nicole is thrilled to be Vice-President of the BCECTA, as it enables her to support other new teachers, who may be unsure about taking a contract, feel confused about the union, are maybe overwhelmed, and feel a bit lost floating from school to school.

N I C O L E J A R V I S

V I C E - P R E Z

My name is Kendra Jesske, and I am the Web Manager for the BC Early Career Teachers’ Association. I have been teaching in SD62 since September 2012.

After TTOCing for 2 years, I decided to go back to school to get my Professional Specialization Certificate in Special Education. I have taken library courses, as well. Last school year, I obtained my first contract since I started teaching (.2 library in a K-8 school). It was a great first contract, as I love being in the library and have a passion for reading. My fingers are crossed for this school year in the hopes of gaining another great contract!

Besides teaching, I enjoy exercising, spending time with family and friends, and going to the movies (I worked at a movie theatre for 12 years!). My friends hate watching movies with me because I’ve seen them all. ☺

Thank you to those who voted me into my position with the BCECTA. I feel grateful to be working with such a great group of people and am excited for what’s to come with this excellent new PSA. Stay tuned!

S E C R E TA R Y

L A U R A S E E RMy name is Laura Seer and I am the secretary of BCECTA. ILive in Williams Lake, with my two children who are 8 and 3. Currently,

I am a teacher in SD 27 (Cariboo Chilcotin) where I teach French immersion K/1. This is my first solo classroom and am feeling a little overwhelmed! I just started my second year of teaching and am very excited to be a part of this important PSA. I am the TTOC/Membership rep on our local union executive and have learned so much this past year. I look forward to learning more in the year to come about teaching and what we have available to us as early career teachers.

Katherine O’Connor has been an education in British Columbia for the past eight years. She teaches in SD61 in both French

Immersion and English track classes, and after 6 years in her own class, decided to leave the full-time classroom and word as a teacher teaching-on-call. She is a resource evaluator for BCTF<s Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, and a facilitator for TTOC training workshops, as well as teaching at Royal Roads University as an assocait faculty. She brings a lot of experience to the BCECTA Executive Committee having been a past President of the Board for a not-for-profit arts society, corporate event planning an dcopywriting skills and a whole lof of enthusiasm to the table.

K AT H E R I N E O ’ C O N N O R

C O N F E R E N C E C H A I R

W E B M A S T E R

K E N D R A J E S S K E

98


I wanted to be member at large for the new BCECTA because I am passionate about connecting with other early career teachers. This September marks my fourth year of teaching. I have been the Nanaimo-Ladysmith TTOC Chair for 2 years

and currently I am a part of our local Professional Development Committee. As an early career teacher, I easily relate to both the life of teaching on call and of having a fulltime contract. I understand the challenges and excitements of being a part of numerous new schools and staff committees, waiting by the phone for calls, hulling boxes around from classroom to classroom, keeping up with current practices while still discovering and building upon my own innate strengths and weaknesses, asking for advice, and being open to listen and to learn. Being proactive in my professional development

and an active union member throughout my first years of teaching has helped shape me, and will continue to shape me, to become the best educator that I can. It is because of the Provincial Specialist Associations that I continue to take risks that better me. I have realized that I don’t have to do it all alone, and my goal is that through the BCECTA we can ensure that all new teachers know what resources, opportunities, and the community that is out

there for them and how they can access them. Most of all, I am inspired to contribute my knowledge and experiences with you and I am eager to be a part of the learning with all of you along our teaching journeys.

Hi! I’m Colin Bailey, the TTOC rep for Alberni (local 701). I’m entering my third year as TTOC rep and my eighth year as a teacher in the Alberni School District.

My journey as a TTOC is a bit backwards. I started teaching half-time in the remote community of Bamfield but as time went on and the school’s population

shrank, I got hired for smaller and small teaching positions. In addition, the school’s Head Teacher--who happened to be my spouse--was working me far

beyond what my FTE hours suggested! After a few years in Bamfield, we made the big move to Port Alberni where she teaches in various capacities at the elementary level full-time and I’m now a TTOC.

I was intrigued when I heard from my spouse and a colleague in another city who went through the same teaching program as us that the two of them still regarded themselves as “newbie” teachers. I thought that I was the only teacher with eight years experience who felt that! It really demonstrated to me that a PSA such as BCECTA is really necessary and important in the process of ensuring that new teachers see opportunities to be mentored and empowered. I hope to help develop ideas and guidance during BCECTA’s formative process with these opportunities in mind.

C O L I N B A I L E Y A I M E E B L O W

J E N M C D O N A L DA L E X A N D R A A D H I K A R YHi! My Name is Alexandra Adhikary and I am thrilled to be Member-at-Large for the BCECTA PSA. I am second year teacher at North Peace Secondary School in Fort St. John. I teach Spanish, English and French and have had a passion for learning languages and experiencing different cultures all my life. I grew up in Keremeos, BC and attended

the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna for both my Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees. During school, I worked part-time with the Okanagan Regional Library where I had the opportunity to be elected as Second Vice-President for my Local CUPE Executive, and served as an elected member of CUPE BC’s Young Workers Task Force. These were both great opportunities to work with colleauges and gave me the drive to continue my union work with the BCTF. In my spare time I love to travel, take Zumba classes and drink Starbucks. I look forward to working closely with the rest of our wonderful Executive and all of the Early Career teachers and TTOCs around the province.

My name is Jennifer McDonald and I am excited to be a Member-at-Large for the BCECTA PSA. I completed my education at the University of Victoria where I received my B. Ed in Elementary Education in 2013. I recently went back to school in 2015 to specialize in ELL. I am now in my third year of teaching in SD61 Greater Victoria where I have experience both on contract and as a

TTOC. In 2014 I was elected to the TTOC committee, this gave me great experience being a part of my local and being able to help other teachers like myself. This year I have been elected as Member-at-Large on the SD61 Executive, SD61 TTOC committee, BCTF TTOC Facilitator & Member-at-Large on the BCECTA PSA. I believe that my strong leadership skills will be asset, as well as my passion of learning. I look forward to working together with the BCECTA PSA Executive and other early career teachers in BC.

M E M B E R S- AT-

L A R G E

1110


In 2012 I finished my teaching practicum and applied directly into a continuing contract with the Surrey School District. I had never TOC’d a day in my life, and BAM - there I was- teaching! It was terrifying and exhilirating all at once. If you’ve been TTOCing for a while, and trying to land that elusive contract, this might sound awesome. But it wasn’t. I soon realized that I had missed out on an extremely valuable learning opportunity. Working as a TTOC provides the chance to discover who you want to be as a teacher. I jealously listened to a dear friend talk about her experiences going from school to school, getting to meet different people and see a variety of teachers’ classrooms, their gradebooks, their resources. She had the chance to see what worked, and what didn’t. To build her toolkit and her confidence. To not be overwhlemed by all the things that being a teacher entails (that weren’t taught in PDP!). New teachers have it tough. Juggling a courseload of 7 preps and limited resources. Being brand new, not knowing what questions to ask or where to turn for help. I fully believe in the importance of supporting New Teachers and TTOCs and making the first years as easy as they can be!

E D I T O R

A M A N D A R O B E R T S

I started my teaching career in Coquitlam and North Vancouver in 2006. I began as a TTOC, but soon found myself in a temporary contract. I then spent the next several years working in various temporary contracts and TTOCing, experiencing layoff and recall all the way along. As a TTOC and contract teacher, I have taught many different levels and such a variety of subject areas. While this experience has made me stronger and has helped me develop and grow my teaching tool bag, my first ten years have not been without their challenges. Having to become an expert over night and be incredibly flexible are much more of a job requirement in your early years.I have long believed that TTOCs and new teachers need more support as they venture into their new careers. Long ago, I remember talking about this with a colleague, and it is such a pleasure to see her dream (and the dreams of many others) coming to life in this PSA. I can think of nothing better than becoming a part of BCECTA, and working to provide some support and mentorship to the teachers in BC who are just beginning their teaching adventures.

K E L LY M A C L E A N

We strive to:

* Provide useful and relevant Professional

Development opportunities for Early Career

Teachers

* Partner with other groups who share our

interests in benefit to new teachers and TTOCs

* Communicate actively with members and

prospective members, and listen to their

feedback in order to do what we can to meet

their needs

* Provide practical strategies to improve

practice of teaching

* Advocate regarding issues that New Teachers

and TTOCs face

* Advise Early Career Teachers in matters

related to their profession, union, and teaching

practice.

@ B C E C TA

T R E A S U R E R D R I V I N G G O A L S O F T H E B C E C TA FROM THE EXECUTIVE

1312


The first five minutes in a classroom as a TTOC are like the first five days in a classroom as a contract teacher. Students need to learn a little about you and a lot about expectations for your time teaching them. You need to take the time to discuss expectations and get to know the class during those first five min-utes or five days. Taking this time will help prevent behavior issues and improve classroom management. As a new teacher, you may be discovering what strate-gies work for you and it is okay to try different things, but the number one tip for effective classroom management is consistency regardless of how much time you will be spending with a class.

5 Remember you aren’t the classroom teacher

and therefore do not have the same rapport or knowledge of the class. As such, you may wish to keep a class list with you since you don’t know all the students, especially if going to an assembly or outside. I like to have students write their name on the board if they leave the classroom so I know who is where in case of emergency. This helps keep track of who is where and when

is your favourite subject? ) It is simple, but gives me a little bit of information about them.

3 Try to keep classroom routines when you

can. There are instances where you may need to adjust them, just be sure you communicate that to students. It is easier for you as a teacher to adapt to established routines than try to change them for one day with students.

4 Be consistent.

1 Take time at the start of the day to communicate

the expectations. This is key to set the tone for the day and a fantastic preventative measure to minimize potential problems with behavior.

2 Find a way to build rapport with students

and connect right off the bat. I like to ask a question during attendance so instead of replying with “here” or “present” when I call their name, they answer a question (Ex: What is your favourite sport? What did you have for breakfast? What

For Teachers Teaching-on-Call

Tips for new

t e a c h e r s

C L A S S R O O M M A N A G E M E N T & T I P S F O R S U C C E S S AMANDA LONG

1. Take time each day to build rapport with your new class, especially in the beginning.

2. Let the students be a part of setting up the expectations and routines in the class, if they have a part in building it, they are more likely to help make sure it runs smoothly. Building Community is key!

3. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Communicate when things are changing and why.

4. Know yourself! Understanding what kind of environment works for you and your students will help create a positive learning climate.

5. Have a bag of tricks or a variety of strategies to use and try with your students so that you can learn what works and so they don’t get bored or oblivious to certain strategies.

Ask your local union president about booking a BCTF classroom management workshop at your school or union office. There are free workshops available for TTOC Classroom management as well as contract teachers classroom management strategies.

1514


In case you’re curious, Cassie, Hector, and the late Zeus are cats who have chosen to make my home their home too! Cassie invariably gets labelled as the cat who thinks about food all of the time, Hector is sometimes as clue-less as depicted, and, yes, Zeus was indeed quite the crybaby kitteh!A PDF of this activity can be downloaded from our

website. Please visit www.BCECTA.ca

As a TTOC, I find a useful activity to do with some primary and early intermediate students is listening exercises. Inspired by Beverly Armstrong’s Who’s Following Directions? these are short exercises that rely on the entire class being on board and functioning both individually and as a team. They’re useful time-fillers in addition to being a means to remind the students that even though you’re not their “regular” teacher, you’re still in charge.

I created a couple of my own “elimination game” listening exercises a few years ago and have found that they’ve come very much in handy as part of my TTOC backpack of tricks. In fact, I’ve used these two so much that I’m likely going to have to create new ones this year as a lot of the students I’ve encountered in past years will likely have me as a TTOC again this year!

In this particular elimination game, the students have to puzzle out which cat of just over a bakers’ dozen is the

“guilty” party based on clues that I provide. The scenario I usually set up is that one of the cats stole a bag of treats and as a class, we need to track him/her down. I choose a cat and then give clues to help eliminate possiblities. The students place an “X” by the eliminated cat’s name in order to keep track. A reading might go like this:

1. The cat who stole the cat treats is not crying.2. The cat who stole the cat treats does not need help seeing in the sun.3. . . . has both eyes4. . . . has a tail5. . . . has a tail that’s not crazy long6. . . . doesn’t dress up for Hallowe’en7. . . . doesn’t think it’s Santa Claus

and so forth until the cat who is guilty of stealing the cat treats remains.

The types of clues you give will depend largely on the age of the students involved. Younger students will generally respond better

to “is not” type clues, while older ones will be able to eliminate suspects based on “positive” clues, such as clues 3 and 4.

I find it’s best to prepare the clues in advance, but some teachers may be adept at doing this on the fly. Your call! I’m also pretty strict about wanting silence before giving a clue. My experience is that most students will be on board and ensure that the class is quiet, even the really--uh--”active” classes.

Many students want to colour their sheets when it’s finished, particularly if they know I’m the one who drew the cats. If time and circumstances permit, I say go for it.

T T O C T O O L B O X ! COLIN BAILEY

1716


Uh oh. Your Primary lesson went short. Or–you were asked to fill in for a class at the very last minute.

Here’s a list of 20 engaging games you can play with kids 12 and under with very minimal preparation. Most require only paper and pencils or a chalkboard and chalk. It’s a perfect list to keep in your Primary binder for those days when you have ten minutes left to fill and a room full of rowdy kids. There’s nothing too revolutionary on the list. They are probably all games you’ve played before yourself. But there is something comforting about seeing them all in one place!

PDF version of the document can be downloaded here.

Rachel Evans Davis is an avid blogger who graciously accepted to share her resource with the new teachers that the BCECTA supports.

She has many printables and other resources available for download via her website:w w w . t h e m o r m o n h o m e . c o m

She can also be reached via email at:g r e e n d a v i s @ g m a i l . c o m

L A S T S E C O N D G A M E S F O R K I D S RACHEL DAVIS

http://www.themormonhome.com/last-minute-games-when-your-primary-lesson-goes-short/

http://themormonhome.com

1918


When I emb arked on my adventure

of my first year teaching, I had no idea how my first day would go. I had just spent the last couple of weeks walking the picket line with my new colleagues outside this huge building but today was the day I could finally enter. As I looked around my classroom I saw faces with mixed emotions, some students were excited to be back at school, some were nervous about their first

day back, and others were curious about who this Ms. Adhikary character was. I took attendance, pronouncing a few names wrong, with a smile on my face; it was only the first class and I was already sweating…oh wait! Maybe that was because the heat was broken and my classroom was set to 30+ degrees…or maybe the fact that my first block had close to 40 students, 10 that were not on my attendance list. As the day progressed

I continued to meet the students who would validate my career choice and always keep me smiling throughout the semester. There were only a few other panic moments during the day, for example when one of my students left by ambulance or when my projector wouldn’t work at all, so it wasn’t surprising that my administrators were a bit worried that I might not come back the next day. I tossed and turned in bed that night wondering what my second day of teaching might bring. Would my room still feel like a furnace? Would I have enough desks? Did I photocopy that worksheet? Do I even know what I’m doing?! And guess what? None of that matters when you have the most amazing students. My first year of teaching went on day by day, with some good times and some not so good times, but I loved every moment of it! I may not have left every day with a smile on my face, but every morning as I entered the school, unlocked my classroom, and wrote the

agenda up on my chalkboard (yes, I said chalkboard…aaaachoo!…cough cough sneeze sneeze) I couldn’t help but grin ear to ear, for the excitement of seeing my students made everything worth it! So when people ask me how my first year teaching went I have one simple answer for them; it was stressful, busy, overwhelming, and crazy, but it sure was awesome!

M Y F I R S T Y E A R I N T H E

T R E N C H E S BY ALEXANDRA ADHIKARY

2120


In their own words, they said,

“Sharing is the most important thing we will do as teachers… teaching cannot and should not happen in isolation.

It’s that time of year where everyone is planning away for the school year and resource sharing is a big part of the daily interactions between teachers.”

They compiled a list of their favourite resources, both from their blog and other sites for our perusal.

Check out the blog post (and the list of resources!)

h t t p : / / t a l e o f t w o t e a c h e r s .c o m / 2 0 1 5 / 0 9 / 0 4 / r e s o u r c e - p a g e /

Starfall is a well known website used in many

schools. Access to the website costs between

$35 and $270 a year depending on if you are

a parent, teacher, classroom or school. The

Starfall Learn to Read app is only one section

of the website and costs $2.93. It focuses on

a series of 15 mini books that teaches vowels,

phonetics and decoding. It is best for students

aged 4-7, ELL students or students who need

extra reading practice. Children can read

sentences out loud, have sentences read aloud

or touch words for help with pronunciation. It

has good progression through songs, videos

and many activities such as matching, fill in

the blanks, games, puzzles and word sorts.

This app is good in classrooms because there

are no external links or in app purchases to

confuse students.

Karley and Meaghan met during their Education degrees at UVic. They bonded over

mutual interests and experiences in the classroom, eventually coming up with the idea

to start their own blog. It’s filled with tonnes of post about life as a new teacher. The ups

and downs, highs and lows. It’s a lovely window into what all teachers might experience.

In addition to the anecdotal posts, there’s tips and tricks for teaching, tools for wellbe-

ing and an whole collection of resources!

T E A C H E R

F E AT U R E WWW.TALEOFTWOTEACHERS.COM

A P P R E V I E W BY JEN MCDONALD

http://taleoftwoteachers.com/2015/09/04/resource-page/

http://taleoftwoteachers.com/2015/09/04/resource-page/

2322


Quick Teaching Bio of Doris Kuehn, who retired from teaching in June 2015.I was born and raised in the Okanagan, graduating from Pen-Hi in Penticton in 1976. I went immediately to U.Vic. and earned my B.Ed. (double major – Phys. Ed. and Art) in secondary education in 1981. My first full-time teaching job was in Kelowna, but after two great years, I learned about politics and temporary contracts! I was a TOC and short-term contract holder on and off until I landed my continuing contract in Oliver in 1989. In my 33 year career, I have taught Physical Education (General, Community Recreation), Visual Arts (Visual Art, Art Foundations, 2-D Art, 3-D Art, Art Careers, Drawing &Painting, Sculpture & Ceramics, Photography), Home Economics (Foods & Nutrition, Clothing & Textiles, Family Management), Science, Math, English, Business Ed (Info Tech, Web-Design, Keyboarding), Social Studies, and even German. I completed a Master’s degree from Gonzaga in 2010 in Leadership and Administration. I have taught in five school districts (Kelowna, Quesnel, Penticton, Campbell River and Oliver) and six schools. I’ve had a wonderful career!

So, am I qualified to give some advice? Maybe. . .

When I started teaching in the 80s I had few resources to draw from. I would

work in my small office at school on my typewriter creating handouts – quizzes, rules, lesson plans, and so forth. The custodians would come and tell me to go home at 11 p.m. as they had to lock up the school. In those days teachers did not have keys to the school and could not go in

to work on weekends. We also did not have personal computers and research was done using books and our own creative lesson planning.

Talk about labour intensive! As a new teacher, I could see no other way to be the teacher I wanted to be without putting in long hours. Evenings

and weekends belonged to my development as a teacher. My first year of teaching did not include a social life.

Times have changed for teachers, and in a good way. Technology has opened the door for research, sharing and collaborating. Even with my thirty years of teaching, I was still developing new lessons and being excited about the process and the presentation to students in my final year of teaching. Lifelong learning and teaching are who I am and with that I continue to do so, even in my so-called retirement! So, if you don’t mind, I’ll pass along some suggestions to new teachers:

As a new teacher, I could see no other way to be the teacher I wanted to be without putting in long hours.

1. MENTORSHIP. Find a mentor at school who wants to help you succeed and doesn’t see helping you as a burden. You can see the excitement in their eyes when they talk about teaching. There is district money and often mentorship money for you, as a new teacher, to visit classrooms. Take advantage of it – go to other schools within your district and see as many teachers as you can. Everyone has their own style, but you can learn something from all of them. Keep away from negative talking and complaining teachers. Stay positive and you will be happier.

2. NETWORK. Join your PSA, teaching blogs, and other groups that will help you get your curriculum organized and understood. PSA newsletters have wonderful ideas and links to help you find resources specific to your teaching area. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel! The resources you find can always be adjusted and adapted to your specific needs. Your individuality will be what makes your lessons your own.

3. TIME. Your first years of teaching will require HOURS and HOURS of prep! There is no getting around that. You are starting at square one and you will have to build your resources one lesson at a time and one unit at a time. You may even be teaching a subject that is not your strength or even your area. You said, “Yes,” to the job, and now you have to pull it off! You can do it, with dedication and hard work. You may sometimes feel like you are only a day or two ahead of your class. Welcome to teaching! You have a big job ahead of you. Learn to say no to every “opportunity” to get involved, like being on committees or coaching teams. There are only so many hours in a day, and teacher burnout is a real thing! Pace yourself and stay sane. Your students need you!

I am currently on the TOC list and am posting my lessons on Teachers-Pay-Teachers. It is exciting to share my hard work with others. I make a few dollars, but the hours of work that goes into it doesn’t even come close to what I charge for a lesson.

If you don’t know about this web-site, it is a great one for new teachers. I few dollars can go a long way and there are MANY free lessons available in almost every subject area you can think of. Here is one of mine: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Web-Links-for-Teachers-2097236 and my free kite project is just so much fun: w w w . t e a c h e r s p a y t e a c h e r s . c o m / P r o d u c t / K i t e -Project-1793344

A D V I C E F R O M E X P E R I E N C E BY DORIS KUHEN

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Web-Links-for-Teachers-2097236

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Web-Links-for-Teachers-2097236

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kite-Project-1793344

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kite-Project-1793344

2524


C L A S S R O O M N E W S L E T T E R E X A M P L E B Y K . J E S S K E C L A S S R O O M N E W S L E T T E R E X A M P L E B Y K . J E S S K E

Mr./Mrs. Teacher’s Kindergarten Class

October 2012

Classroom News We have been learning about:

• Days of the week

• Numbers 1 through 10

• Our names

• Each other!

• School and classroom rules

• Safety in the gym

• Songs, poems, and chants

• Classroom routines

• Stories

• Letters of the alphabet

Important Dates Oct 31: Halloween Party (Families Welcome)

Nov 7: Skating Trip

Nov 21: First Report Card

Dec 11: Swimming Trip

Dec 20 – Jan 2: Winter Holidays

Jan 3: Back to School!

Read to your child at least 10 minutes

each night!

Families: Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have about your child. I can be reached via phone or e-mail.

Phone: #555-555-5555 E-mail: [email protected]

At-Home Activities: - Look at signs around the neighbourhood - Play with magnetic letters on the fridge - Read aloud - Look at newspapers and food labels - Write grocery lists

Volunteer Opportunity

I am looking for volunteers to come into our classroom on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9:00-10:00 to read with children. Please check and return to me:

___ I am available Tuesdays

___ I am available Thursdays

___ I am available Fridays

Are there any other ways you can help in our classroom?

____________________

____________________

____________________

Week at a Glance Monday: GYM

Tuesday: LIBRARY

Wednesday: GYM

Thursday: COMPUTERS

Friday: GYM

Learning Centres

• Book Corner

• Writing Station

• Water Table

• Block Play

• Math Station

• Dramatic Play

• Touch Table

• Listening

Welcome to our Kindergarten.

We will learn a lot of things today.

Here we are in Kindergarten.

We will have a lot of time to play.

We will learn the alphabet and

We will learn how to write numbers, too.

We’ll have fun in Kindergarten,

‘Cause there are so many things to do!

2726


In January of this year, I was lucky to have the opportunity to take a short-term contract in South Korea, teaching grade 9 in an English-Immersion Winter School, along with 21 other Canadian

Teachers from B.C. As a 3rd-year Teacher, the experience was amazing in terms of gaining insight into the differences between various countries’ school systems and cultures. One part of the experience

which stands out to me is that I learned about the rigor of the Korean school system; largely due to the parental pressure placed on children’s shoulders to succeed academically in a freshly capitalist country sorely lacking in post-secondary institutions. Most children fall asleep during the day at school, because they stay up late at “Hogwon” - private tutoring schools that consume children’s evenings up to as late as eleven pm; even midnight. There are so few universities that it is extremely competitive to get in; all highschool students write an exit exam similar in nature to the American S.A.T.’s. The grade nine students I taught had incredible critical thinking skills; they were writing essays about why North Korea and South Korea should or should not rejoin, and their reasoning touched on economics, natural resources, labour forces, and politics. That said, it was evident that this was a private

school environment wherein their families had paid a considerable tuition to send them to this winter English school; this wasn’t your average class composition. A few of my students shared that they had lived abroad for a year; one student had lived in Washington with his family, and another had been to Australia for grade 3. (The reason? Her brother, so stressed out from Korean school, had begged their mother to take them abroad.) A number of the other teachers in the program agreed that the students who had experienced at least one year of school in another country demonstrated more creativity and adjusted better to change. After having studied in Canada my whole life, with a few semesters

abroad, I found myself wondering… are some countries are doing it better than others when it comes to K-12 education? I saw this book at an English bookstore in Seoul, and couldn’t resist buying it, considering I was already contemplating how student experiences differ in their respective countries.

Job challenge #1:

How to navigate a PC when everything is in Korean.

Cafeteria dinner, Day 1.

Best salad ever!! Sesame + citrus zest + apple + greens. Black rice mixed with sticky rice. Honeydew, beef stew, noodles, scallion soup.

TA L E S F R O M S E O U L BY NICOLE JARVIS

2928


Cool things about teaching English in South Korea: We lived in dormitories on the school campus, taught 8:30-5:10 and we had weekends off (unlike the students, who attend ‘school’ for activities like first-aid training and on Saturdays!). I was also tutoring a small group of older students on an extra contract, which means my evenings Monday-Thursday were full, making the weekends valuable free time! There was an amazing mountain close to our campus, ideal for hiking, and the town of Eunpyeong was within a ten minute walk, with markets full of strange snacks (dried squid, anyone?) and many friendly Koreans. Friday night we went to Karaoke and learned to say NO to fruit platters (they charged us $30 for spontaneous fruit), and that the local cheap beer is called “Cass”. We planned for to see the De-Militarized Zone the following weekend, then crash a Shakespeare theatre company’s fundraiser at a pub (can you tell we’re English teachers? #nerd). I never did make it to the Shakespeare party, or the DMZ, but I’m very glad to have been able to see the Military Museum. It’s easily in my top 5 museums ever, and that’s after travelling in London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam during college.

• We went to a coffee shop, walking up long skinny stairs decorated with coffee shop murals, only to discover the coffee shop was a hair salon. Not a coffee shop.

• You can pay $5.00 for a green tea at these fancy coffee shops decorated like homesteads straight out of Little House on the Prairie.

• There is such a thing as a nut truck. It’s a flatbed truck filled with nuts (walnuts, almonds, etc) bulk-style, with a scale and a highly advanced lamp system (that last part is an exaggeration. Think bedside lamps wired onto a pole suspended over the nuts, with power bars and duct tape.)

• Cartoon / Silly socks are sold EVERYWHERE. It’s ridic-ulous. Cat socks, strawberry socks, Harry Potter Socks… and if it isn’t a sock stand, it’s a phone case stand.

• “What the Book?” is a great English bookstore with a huge used book section. They also sell scratch and sniff stickers.

• We had tacos and margaritas at a cool international eatery. The servers had little flags on their nametags to show their home country... Malaysia, USA, France, Gabon...

• There is an obsession with all things French: Macarons, French coffees, French bakeries...

• People line up for churros here. It’s a big deal.

• The student performance at the end of our stay was very professional, but also fairly shocking! Korean Pop has a tendency to be even more ‘sexy’ than North American pop culture, and it seemed to be totally normal for grade three students to be watching a moulon-rouge-esque performance. The Canadian Teachers were all pretty embarrassed to see that on stage!

Lost in Translation

What’s a “hairkerker”

<<--

or better yet, a “lamp waffle”?!

-->>

F u n n y S t o r i e s

3130


The BCTF has worked with Gail Stromquist, leader of Project of Heart, to create a resource for teachers to help them teach the history of residential schools in B.C.

It is an interactive e-book with links on each page for pictures, videos, classroom activities and timelines.

To view Project of Heart: Illuminating the Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in B.C. go to:

www.Bctf.ca/HiddenHistory

B C T E A C H E R S ’ C O M M I T T M E N T T O T R U T H A N D R E C O N C I L I AT I O N

P R O J E C T O F H E A R T JENNIFER MCDONALD

http://www.Bctf.ca/HiddenHistory

3332


We believe that teaching doesn’t happen in a bubble and that our best resources are each other.

Please consider writing an article for publication in future newsletters!!

Do you have a favourite activity? Something that’s worked well for you as a TTOC? Examples of lesson plans or projects? Have you picked up any tips and tricks over the years that you’d be willing to share? What about advice you’ve received or that you could share with those starting out? Maybe write about an app that you’ve tried or a book you’ve read.

For each edition we publish, we’ll conduct a prize draw from the articles submitted. You could be the lucky recipient of a prize pack, resources or a gift card!

We’re also happy to hear feedback so please don’t hesitate to contact us. Let us know what you liked, what you didn’t, or what you’d like to see more of in the next edition of the newsletter.

We’d love to start an “Ask/Answer” column, so if you’re a new teacher or TTOC with a question, please send it to us and we’ll do our best to answer, find more information, or put you in contact with resources.

BCECTA NEWSLETTER GUIDELINES & NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS

The BCECTA Newsletter is the official publication of the British Columbia Early Career Teachers’

Association, provincial specialist association #77 of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. At least three

issues are published each calendar year.

Articles submitted for publication should be sent via email to mmemaclean[at]gmail[dot}com.

Sumbissions must include:

• The author’s full name and contact information.

• A short description of the author and their current situation (training background,

teaching experience).

• A brief disclaimer allowing the editor editing and publishing rights.

• A photograph of the author, if available.

• A photograph or high resolution graphic to accompany the article. These images must

be attached to the email in separate files. Please ensure they are in .jpeg or .png formats

compatible with AdobeInDesign.

Length of articles usually varies from 300 to 1,000 words. Articles longer than 1,000 words may

be shortened for publication.

Please do not submit items from copyright publications if you have not included permission to

publish them.

The editor reserves the right to alter the text in any way necessary to conform to the objectives

and mandates of the BCECTA.

Y O U R P S A , Y O U R V O I C E W E W A N T T O H E A R F R O M Y O U ! KELLY MACLEAN, EDITOR

TeachBCYour go-to site for BC teaching resourcesDes ressources pédagogiques conçues pour la C.-B.

What is TeachBC?• Online resource of teaching materials, lessons, and research relevant

to K–12 BC curriculum.

• Allows users to download, upload, and share resources.

• Search by subject, grade, resource type, title, description, language,

and more.

Who can use it?• Everyone! The website is public.

• Teachers, provincial specialist associations, and other organizations.

How can teachers contribute?• Upload your favourite lesson plans, unit plans, activities, resources, or

research and make TeachBC the go-to site for K–12 BC resources.

• Tell your colleagues about TeachBC and help us build the site.

In the spirit of teachers helping teachers, thank you!

Visit teachbc.bctf.ca

b.c. early career teachers’ association...i am so proud to be a part of this group and hope to...

Documents